sport news World Cup: Morocco's warriors went to war with Spain and played like their ... trends now
The joke doing the rounds when it became clear that Morocco would be playing Spain at this stage was along the lines of ‘the winner gets Andalucia.’
The Spanish military was handed one of its greatest ever beatings during Morocco’s 50-year struggle to get its own lands back and Luis Enrique’s players received a little taste of what the nation’s troops had faced in that fight for independence.
They stepped out into a war zone: an unremitting cacophony of whistles which lasted for as long as Spain kept possession and revealed, in the process, the aimless nature of how long they held onto that ball on a featureless road to nowhere.
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An energetic man with the number 91 on the back of his replica Atlas Lions tops was, literally, the band-leader, leading the sea of Moroccan fans as they chanted to the beat of two drums, glancing anxiously over his shoulder each time the side threatened.
Enrique, in T-shirt and brown chinos, appeared unmoved but he wasn’t the one having to contend with Moroccans going at it like their lives depended on it. As his players were vigorously dispossessed – Achraf Hakimi upended 19-year-old Pedri and Hakim Ziyech delivering something equally emphatic to Jordi Alba – you wondered about the ethics of sending those boys into this.
It was never going to be easy. No fewer than 24 of the 26-man Moroccan squad here play their football overseas.
The Moroccans were going at it like their lives depended on it as Spain dominated possession
The warriors on this field were Moroccan and they were ready for war against the Spanish
Their serried ranks of red shirts called out for something dynamic, unexpected and world class but it evolved into the same old template from the one-time colonialists, whose team were as pale as their sky blue shirts.
When Xavi and Iniesta were with Sergio Busquets in this team, they were breaking the lines and the rules of the template. The team left behind plays in the pre-ordained straight lines. That doesn’t win World Cups.
The futility of this
